Finders: First copper cathode produced from upgraded plant on Wetar Island
Monday, April 28 2014 - 12:51 AM WIB
ASX-listed Finders Resources Limited announced Monday that it has completed the first cathode stripping from its 3,000-ton per annum copper cathode solvent extraction and electrowinning plant on Wetar Island, Muluku Province.
?The refurbishment and construction of the commercial 3Kt SX-EW plant is now complete and the plant is operating as intended. More than 17 tons of copper cathode has been stripped and palletized to date,? the company said in a statement.
So far over 50,000 tons of copper ore has been stacked on the heap leach pad. The observed leach kinetics for the ores are in line with the expectations that underlie the Bankable Feasibility Study completed in November 2013, the company said.
Finders is also taking advantage of having an earthmoving fleet on site to commence construction of the main project. The fleet has completed excavation to access the Kali Kuning Valley (KKV) which is the intended location for the construction of the 25,000-ton per annum copper cathode solvent extraction and electrowinning plant (25Kt SX-EW plant).
?Earthmoving is now focusing on establishing the access road along the length of the KKV to enable commencement of construction of the site location for the 25Kt SX-EW plant, as well as the plant?s associated heap leach pads and dams.?
The waste from earthmoving has been used to fill the historical open pit adjacent to the mine site and once filled will be constructed for use as another heap leach pad. This Gold Pit Heap Leach Pad (GPLP) filling operation is now 90 percent complete. When filling is complete and the leaching infrastructure is installed, the GPLP will have capacity for over 500,000 tons of copper ore in its first lift, the company explained.
Earthmoving work being undertaken in the KKV is on the critical path for the 25Kt SX-EW plant construction. This work will reduce the capital cost and construction time for the main project, it said.
Finders is an emerging low cost copper cathode producer, developing a high grade 28,000tpa copper mine on Wetar Island in Indonesia, plus a highly prospective, advanced gold-silver exploration project in Sumatra. Currently the focus lies with the fully permitted Wetar project where mining and subsequent copper cathode production has commenced.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak